Home Office

Offences against Children

Mr Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, How many reports the police recorded of sexual offences against children under 16 in each local authority in (a) 2009 and (b) the last year for which figures are available.

Norman Baker: The police recorded crime data that the Home Office receives from the police forces of England and Wales relate only to how many crimes are recorded and not how many reports are received. It is only possible to centrally provide figures for certain sexual offences that identify the age of the victim in statute, namely:  Rape of a female child under 16 Rape of a female child under 13 Rape of a male child under 16 Rape of a male child under 13 Sexual assault on a female child under 13 Sexual assault on a male child under 13 Sexual activity involving a child under 13 Sexual activity involving child under 16 Sexual grooming (the victim must be under 16)Data for these offences are provided at the community safety partnership (CSP) level in Tables A and F. Police recorded crime data are not wholly available at the local authority level although in most areas local authorities and CSPs are coterminous. Data are provided for the financial year 2009/10 due to changes in offence codes in April 2009 and data for 2010/11, 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2013/14 are provided for context (Tables B to E).Recent increases in the overall number of recorded sexual offences have been attributed by the Office for National Statistics to a) the willingness of victims to come forward and report these crimes to the police, partly due to wider ‘operation Yewtree effect, where victims of sexual offences that are not directly connected to Yewtree are now reporting these offences to the police. and b) an improvement in crime recording by the police for these offences. The information requested is also published quarterly as part of the police recorded crime open data tables and can be accessed in an unformatted list here):https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables (see tables titled ‘Police recorded crime data by community safety partnership’).   



Tables A-F CSP & Tables B-E Financial year 
(Excel SpreadSheet, 142.35 KB)

Stalking

Nadine Dorries: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police officers in England and Wales have been trained on the law on stalking to date; and what further such training is planned.

Nadine Dorries: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to monitor the effects of section 2A and 4A of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

Nadine Dorries: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Government plans to introduce a register for serial stalkers.

Norman Baker: The College of Policing sets standards and provides relevant training products and services to police forces. This includes a College of Policing training package on stalking, which was completed 56,748 times between October 2012 and 30 September 2014 by police officers and staff in England and Wales, and continues to be available.Neither the College of Policing nor the Home Office holds information which breaks this figure down by the number of police officers and staff in England and Wales that have completed the training.In 2013-14, 743 prosecutions were commenced under the new stalking legislation. This is a significant increase from 2012-13 and shows that the legislation is taking effect. We are also working with the police and Crown Prosecution Service to raise awareness and improve professional knowledge. To ensure prosecutors’ knowledge is continuously refreshed, in April 2014, the CPS launched a specific e-learning module on stalking which focused on victim support, working with the police and ensuring a strong case is built from the start. The College of Policing is also undertaking a review of how stalking incidents are investigated by the police. This will include how the police understand what constitutes a course of conduct in policing, how the police support victims, and further training on the appropriate use of Police Information Notices.Since April 2014, offences of stalking and harassment are being reported separately in Police Recorded Crime figures. This will allow us to monitor the impact of the legislation more effectively. Convicted stalkers will already be captured on the Police National Computer. We are working to make better use of existing databases and improve connectivity and information sharing rather than creating new databases or registers for each and every offence.

Firearms: Licensing

Richard Graham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the target time frames is for processing firearms licences.

Richard Graham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average length of time taken to process firearms licensing (a) applications and (b) renewals is in each region.

Richard Graham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many firearms certificates were issued in each region and constituent part of the UK in the last year.

Norman Baker: Firearms licensing is administered by the police. The Home Office does not hold information about the time taken by forces to process firearms licences.There is ongoing work by government and the police to improve the efficiency of the system. An important component for this is the development of an onlinesystem called eCommerce which is being developed by the police as part of a business change programme to standardise and improve turnaround times.Information about the number of firearms certificates issued in each region of England and Wales is published in "Firearm and Shotgun Certificates in England and Wales 2013/14" which is available on the GOV.UK website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/firearm-and-shotgun-certificates-in-england-and-wales-financial-year-ending-march-2014/firearm-and-shotgun-certificates-in-england-and-wales-financial-year-ending-march-2014Information relating to the number of certificates issued in Scotland can be found on the Scottish Government website at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2014/10/4039/0 The Police Service of Northern Ireland lists its statistical outputs on the PSNI Statistics page of its website at: http://www.psni.police.uk/directory/updates/updates_statistics.htm. However, there are no series of statistics that are directly comparable to those for England and Wales or Scotland.

Department for International Development

Palestinians

Mr Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 13 October 2014, to Question 208653, what proportion of the cost of building each school was funded by her Department; when that funding was provided; and what the amount of funding was in each case.

Mr Desmond Swayne: An updated assessment from the UN Relief and Works Agency now indicates that nine out of thirteen schools built using DFID funding sustained damage during the recent conflict. DFID funded 100% of the cost of construction, basic equipment, furniture and supplies for these schools.. The funds were disbursed in December 2011 and each school cost on average £1.1 million.

House of Commons Commission

Serjeant at Arms

Michael Fabricant: To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of Commons Commission, who the candidates were for the post of Serjeant at Arms on the last occasion on which it was advertised.

John Thurso: The post of Serjeant at Arms was last advertised in 2012. The successful applicant was Lawrence Ward. Candidates applied in confidence: it is not the Commission's practice to disclose the names of the unsuccessful applicants as this would breach their expectation of confidentiality.

Television

Michael Fabricant: To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of Commons Commission, if he will take steps to reward the teams who have installed and successfully delivered digital television feeds including BBC local news and European Parliament, Committee Room, Welsh Assembly, and Scottish Parliament proceedings to offices on the Estate.

John Thurso: The Commission acknowledges the challenges involved in changing the unique and complex system that serves over 2,200 screens across Parliament and 20 government departments, and commends the House Service for the smooth changeover. Engineering, project management, maintenance and commercial staff were involved, together with the suppliers and sub-contractors, and Parliament’s long-serving on-site Annunciator technicians. I have nothing to offer as reward beyond my heartfelt thanks.The teams involved are delighted that this project has been singled out for acknowledgement by the hon. Member for Lichfield, and are grateful for his support in the early days of defining the system requirements, during his time on the Administration Committee.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Pakistan

Guto Bebb: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with government officials in Pakistan on the allegations made against Aasia Bibi.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: I am concerned to hear that a Pakistan court has upheld the imposition of the death penalty in the case of Asia Bibi. We support the EU’s recent statement on her case and hope that the verdict will be overturned on appeal. We regularly raise at the highest levels the misuse of blasphemy laws against both Muslims and religious minorities. Most recently, I raised this with the Pakistan High Commissioner on 28 October. We will ensure that these issues continue to be raised at the highest levels in Pakistan and we will continue to express our concerns about such cases.